Spectroscopic Study of a Cinchona Alkaloid-Catalyzed Henry Reaction

New Mechanism for Cinchona Alkaloid-Catalysis Allows for an Efficient Thiophosphorylation Reaction

An efficient synthesis of nucleoside 5'-monothiophosphates under mild reaction conditions using commercially available thiophosphoryl chloride was achieved with a cinchona alkaloid catalyst. A detailed mechanistic study of the reaction was undertaken, employing a combination of reaction kinetics, NMR spectroscopy, and computational modeling, to better understand the observed reactivity. Taken collectively, the results support an unprecedented mechanism for this class of organocatalyst.

Synthesis and Catalytic Application of Two Mononuclear Complexes Bearing Diethylenetriamine Derivative Ligand

Two mononuclear zero-dimensional Ni(II) and Zn(II) complexes bearing diethylenetriamine derivative ligand, namely [NiL(CH₃COO)₂(H₂O)] (1) and [ZnL(CH₃COO)₂] (2) [L = N, N'-bis(2-hydroxybenzyl)diethylenetriamine], were synthesized under reflux conditions. The molecular composition and structure of the complexes were identified by IR, PXRD, elemental analyses, and single crystal X-ray diffraction. Complex 1 belongs to a monoclinic crystal system with the P2₁/n space group, and Complex 2 belongs to a monoclinic crystal system with the C2/c space group. The Henry reaction of nitromethane with aromatic aldehydes was explored with Complexes 1 and 2 as the catalyst. Results from the catalytic reaction revealed that the complexes displayed excellent catalytic activities under the optimized conditions and that the substrate scope of aromatic aldehydes could be extended to a certain extent. In addition, the possible catalytic mechanism of the Henry reaction was also deduced.

Asymmetric Organocatalyzed Aza-Henry Reaction of Hydrazones: Experimental and Computational Studies

The first asymmetric catalyzed aza-Henry reaction of hydrazones is presented. In this process, quinine was used as the catalyst to synthesize different alkyl substituted β-nitrohydrazides with ee up to 77 %. This ee was improved up to 94 % by a further recrystallization and the opposite enantiomer can be obtained by using quinidine as the catalyst, opening exciting possibilities in fields in which the control of chirality is vital, such as the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, experimental and ab initio studies were performed to understand the reaction mechanism. The experimental results revealed an unexpected secondary kinetic isotope effect (KIE) that is explained by the calculated reaction pathway, which shows that the protonation of the initial hydrazone and the C-C bond forming reaction occur during a concerted process. This concerted mechanism makes the catalysis conceptually different to traditional base-promoted Henry and aza-Henry reactions.

Photophysics of perylene monoimide-labelled organocatalysts

A fluorophore-tagged organocatalyst undergoes electron transfer in polar solvents allowing to sense the presence of its free quinuclidine catalytic site.

Unraveling the Origin of Solvent Induced Enantioselectivity in the Henry Reaction with Cinchona Thiourea as Catalyst

In this work, we report an energy decomposition and electronic structure analysis using DFT calculations for the C-C coupling step in the Henry reaction with cinchona thiourea as catalyst and DMF solvent to unravel the origin of enantioselectivity. We found that the conformation of flexible thiourea moiety is affected by the solvent, and in the preferred conformation of thiourea in strong Lewis basic DMF solvent, the N-H sites are in the opposite direction, i.e., in trans conformation. Hence, the thiourea moiety acts via single hydrogen bonding with substrates. The conformation of the substrates with respect to the forming C-C bond plays critical role to increase orbital interaction between two substrates and enhances hydrogen bond strength between substrates and catalyst, which in turn stabilizes the positive charge developing on the catalyst at the transition state for one of the enantiomers ( S). Thus, the enantioselectivity has electronic structure origin. The stronger H-bond formation in the S enantiomer has been confirmed by the calculated IR spectra and is in agreement with thus far experimental and computational results.